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AMMAN — UNICEF and INJAZ on Sunday launched “The National Initiative for Youth Volunteers”, which aims to enhance the country’s volunteering culture and to motivate young people to become active participants in society, a joint statement said. 

Launched under the slogan “Volunteer and Build the Culture of a Generation”, the community-based initiative will run with the help of the public and private sectors and civil society organisations in order to highlight ethics in volunteer work and its positive impact on development, as well as the important role that volunteering plays in building a generation that is loyal, dedicated and empowered to transform the challenges it faces into opportunities

Funded by the government of Japan, the initiative will target youth from diverse areas throughout the country and engage young people from multiple backgrounds through activities and media campaigns, the statement read.

The initiative was established as part of a national campaign that seeks to highlight the role of youth as an integral component of the volunteering process and give them the chance to demonstrate their abilities and capabilities, as the largest demographic in Jordanian society. “The initiative will bring together existing efforts by various organisations and sectors and direct them more efficiently to increase youth participation in volunteering activities,” the statement said, adding “Volunteering will strengthen young people’s capabilities, enrich their experience and enable them to create positive change in their communities.”

Building on work already achieved in this field, the initiative will institutionalise volunteer work at a national level while aiming to establish a series of national, widespread partnerships to provide more volunteering opportunities and strengthen the institutional framework of volunteering work. It will also facilitate investment in the available opportunities and enrich the experiences of youth, according to the statement. 

Besides, the project will serve to advance youth’s capabilities by providing them with volunteering opportunities that are appropriate for them, thus enriching their expertise and increasing their chances to enter the work market in a better manner. 

The next phase for the initiative will include an electronic platform that will allow youth to obtain online training in the fields of volunteering, life skills and employment.

AMMAN — Representatives from 80 Community Based Organisations (CBOs), youth initiatives and think tanks on Sunday gathered to celebrate the conclusion of the EU funded “Civil Society project” carried out by the West Asia-North Africa (WANA) Institute and the National Centre for Human Rights under the patronage of HRH Prince Hassan.

In his keynote address to the audience, the chairman and founder of WANA stressed the importance of human capital, “Jordan’s most precious resource”. “It is high time we divide the responsibilities between the public sector, private sector and civil society equally. It is time for Jordan to focus on empowering its youth, women and refugee population,” the prince said, voicing his appreciation to the donors and international agencies for their support to Jordan’s civil society.

Participants in the project briefed the audience on their personal experiences, outlining the different capacity-building workshops they undertook in the fields of community development, human rights, research methods, problem assessment, strategic management, project design and proposal writing, monitoring and evaluation, and advocacy.

Twenty-six year old Suhaib Al Fayoun from Aqaba recalled: “The session on project management was very interesting. I learned how to write reports and plan strategically, which will improve the quality of our initiative.” 

Meanwhile, Tafileh resident Khloud Saharneh, 32, remembered how unsure of herself she was when he co-founded an association for children with autism one year ago. “It’s my first experience working for a CBO, so this series of workshops was very useful. I learned a lot from the human rights session,” she said.

She raised the issue of the lack of funding available to CBOs, saying “The first year, you need to finance the project yourself and then you might find someone to fund you.” 

Civil society team leader at the WANA Institute Mahmoud Nabulsi, responded that “in the future, we want to work on linking the CBOs and youth initiatives with potential donors” .

The ceremony covered a number of related topics including Jordan’s development priorities, the role of CSOs in protecting human rights, the needed policy reforms, and ways to increase policy dialogue opportunities for youth.

EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Fontana commended the project for empowering civil society organisations (CSOs) in Jordan, stressing on their vital role in promoting sustainable development and achieving national priorities. 

“This programme has given CBOs the opportunity to work together across governorates,” Fontana stated, reiterating the EU’s commitment to promoting “meaningful and structural participation” and increasing the capacity of CSOs, notably in the public debate.

The conclusion of the project does not mean that the journey is over though, stressed Nabulsi, who said “actually implementing the policy recommendations that came out of this project is a challenge that lies ahead”.

He pointed to a number of issues facing CBOs such as the high staff turnover which “causes a huge loss of knowledge within certain organisations”.

Nabulsi concluded by urging for continued support to civil society in Jordan, noting that “the sector is a major service provider to citizens and refugees, advocates for policy change, and fulfills an important watchdog function”. 

AMMAN — The Lower House on Sunday passed a provision in the draft movable property security rights law banning the mortgage of one's movable possession as collateral in return of a loan.

Under MPs' amendments, lenders cannot use one's personal belongings, household items and entire salary to lenders to create a charge on movable assets. 

As per deputies' amendments to article 5 of the draft movable property security rights law, neither a bank-owned movable properties nor concessions or licences granted by the state can be put under charge.

The said article also prohibits borrowers' mortgage of salaries, compensations, payments and alimonies as collateral against a business loan in case of a pledge or hypothecation.

The House Legal Committee on Sunday endorsed the 2018 amendments to the Chamber's bylaws under which the term of the permanent office is extended to two years instead of one.

Under the 2016 Constitutional amendments, the term of the House Speaker was extended to two years instead of one, and they can be elected for another two-year term.

The number of the House's permanent committees is reduced to 15 up from 20. The financial committee will be merged with the economic and investments committee, and the education and culture committee and the youth and sports committee will be also merged in one committee.

AMMAN — The Lower House on Sunday called on the 29th Arab League Summit, held in Saudi Arabia's eastern city of Dhahran, to launch joint Arab efforts to resolve crises in Syria, Yemen and Libya.

The House also expressed sorrow for the "agony and large-scale suffering of the Syrian people as a result of the devastating war on terror and the great powers' transformation of Syria as a global battleground to wage their own fight with others".

Reading a statement at the beginning of Sunday's session, House Speaker Atef Tarawneh called for curbing the “foreign interference” in the internal Arab affairs and for solving regional crises through "honest and passionate" joint Arab efforts.

Tarawneh re-emphasized that Syria's seven-year conflict cannot be resolved but through a comprehensive political solution that can end the large-scale suffering of the Syrian people and safeguard the territorial unity of their country.

On the use of prohibited weapons in Syria, the speaker called for resorting to international experts who, he said, can help put an end to the war on Syria "through their neutral findings".

Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have been reported to start an investigation on the attack a town outside Damascus on April 7 that killed dozens of civilians. 

On Saturday dawn, the US, UK and France bombed multiple government targets in Syria on early morning on Saturday targeting alleged chemical weapons sites. 

The Western allies said their joint strikes came in response to a suspected chemical attack on the Syrian rebel-held town of Douma last week.

The speaker also expressed the House's denouncement of attacks on Saudi Arabia using missiles "fuelled by regional states". 

Saudi Arabia’s air defence forces have intercepted several ballistic missiles fired at Riyadh and other cities by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.

AMMAN — Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah, HRH Prince Feisal, the Regent, on Sunday attended a celebration organised by the Awqaf Ministry on the occasion of Al Israa wal Miraj. 

In a speech he gave at the King Abdullah I Mosque’s Islamic Cultural Centre, Awqaf Minister Abdul Nasser Abul Bassal said that preserving Jerusalem is “a pillar of the Jordanian diplomacy” since the establishment of modern Jordan, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

He noted that His Majesty, the custodian of Islamic holy sites in the city, always exerts efforts to preserve and defend the city and its holy shrines, and supports Jerusalemites.

He referred to King Abdullah’s stance on Al Aqsa Mosque as being an Islamic waqf (endowment) on the entire 144-dunum area of Al Haram Al Sharif, stressing that the mosque is a place of worship for Muslims alone and cannot be shared or divided. 

The celebration included broadcasting a short film produced by the Awqaf Ministry under the title “Jerusalem in the eyes of the Hashemites”, which highlighted the Hashemite role in defending Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and its custodianship on the holy city. 

Poet Haider Mahmoud recited a piece in the presence of senior officials and officers, scholars and ambassadors.

The Israa, followed by Miraj, happened on Rajab 27, in the seventh month of the Hijri lunar calendar, in the 10th year of Mohammad’s prophethood, according to Muslim beliefs.

Islamic sources say that the prophet was carried from the Grand Mosque in Mecca to the Farthest Mosque (Al Aqsa Mosque) in Jerusalem on a creature called Al Buraq, in the company of Archangel Gabriel.

There, he led a congregational prayer of the prophets of God, before Gabriel took him to the heavens where he met prophets Adam, John, Jesus, Idris, Aaron and Moses, according to Islam Online, an authoritative Islamic web portal.

During this journey, Muslims believe God ordered the five daily prayers. The prophet then returned to Mecca on the same night.

AMMAN — Governor of the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) and Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources on Sunday signed an agreement  to implement the online bill payment services (eFAWATEERcom) to facilitate the online payment of the latter's services.

The agreement was signed by CBJ Governor Ziad Fariz and Energy Minister Saleh Kharabsheh.

Fariz said that signing the agreement represented a paradigm shift for the various economic sectors that can now use the e-payment system to pay for five of the services the Energy Ministry provides, highlighting that eFAWATEERcom now includes 33 government institutions offering 50 services.

 "We have been looking forward to this step for years as part of the digital transformation the country is witnessing and we hope in the future not only five services are e-paid, but the entire services the ministry provides," said Kharabsheh.

During the press conference, Fariz expressed CBJ's interest in technology, renewable energy, and their  related industries, citing a recent technology that CBJ might fund, which, he said, would change the concept of the electricity payment bills from a "mere bill into a list of information that helps users know how much they spend and how they can rationalise their consumption".

Kharabsheh said that the ministry's energy projects are mainly externally financed while the local funding is very limited.

"We seek to increase the national participation in the projects by allocating 35 per cent for the local added value in each project as the current value is eight per cent only," the minister said.

Fariz highlighted that the bank's funds for the renewable energy projects are mainly targeting small enterprises to help them develop more efficient and green energy systems.  

AMMAN — The 2018 Eager Lion commenced on Sunday with the participation of the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) and the US army.

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Thalji, military training director and the drill’s spokesperson, said that the exercise, which was first held in 2011, sees the participation of ground, marine and air forces that amount to 7,000 members, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

In a joint press conference with Maj. Gen. Jon Mott, the director of exercises and training at the US Central Command, Thalji added that this year's version aims at improving operational coordination between JAF and the US army, training on fighting terrorism and border security, evacuation processes and crisis management. 

The war games also aim at training on search and rescue, fighting e-terrorism and executing joint logistic assistance operations, among other goals that JAF always seeks to acquire as part of its continuous efforts to develop operational, training and humanitarian capabilities, he added. 

The drill events will be implemented on JAF training fields with the participation of all JAF units, security apparatuses, ministries and government and non-government organisations, in addition to the National Centre for Security and Crisis Management, to enhance relations between JAF and other institutions under unconventional conditions, Thalji added.

He added that this year's Eager Lion includes several new hypotheses and intricacies that accord with the nature of threats and developments that happened in the strategic environment in the region.

For his part, Mott said that the drill will offer, for the first time, a course on basic skills to add a professional character and necessary information for ground troops in the pre-execution phase. 

He added that about 3,500 US service members are taking part in the eighth version of the Eager Lion, which is considered a main component of the US-Jordanian strategic partnership and helps prepare both countries' armies, noting that hard work over the past 12 months has contributed to enhanced cooperation and confidence. 

Mott said that participating troops are exercising to develop their capabilities of cooperation with government institutions to activate a mobile laboratory that responds to a simulated chemical incident. 

"It’s [chemical incident] a threat all too real, as we’ve seen recently in Syria.”

The competition will run through April 26.

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has started reviewing a March death sentence issued by the Criminal Court against a 24-year-old man who murdered his niece on a university campus in the name of family honour in Jerash in April 2016.

The court declared the defendant, a Yarmouk University student, guilty of stabbing his niece at her campus on April 13 and handed him the death penalty.

Court documents said the victim’s father worked in the United Arab Emirates so the defendant “appointed himself as the monitor of his nieces’ behaviours, whereabouts and the kind of clothes they were wearing”.

Two days before the murder, the court documents maintained, the defendant suspected that the “victim was lying about her whereabouts and he did not believe her stories”.

“The defendant first decided to kill her at her house then changed his mind and decided to kill her at the university where they studied,” the court added.

On the day of the murder, the court stated, the defendant did not go to his classes and instead asked the victim to take him to her university because he wanted to meet a girl there.

“Once they entered the campus, the defendant walked with the victim for a while then drew a switchblade he was hiding and stabbed her repeatedly in the stomach,” the court added.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition and died 14 hours later as a result of internal bleeding resulting from the stabs to her stomach, the court added.

The defendant, who was arrested at the scene, claimed in front of investigators that “he had dreams that the victim was engaged in immoral activities and that these dreams kept haunting him and that is why he killed her”, according to the 19-page verdict.

The defendant, who pleaded not guilty to the charges during his opening trial, also claimed that he “disapproved of the victim and her sisters’ choice of clothes and had criticised them,” the court maintained.

In its ruling, the tribunal said that the defendant does not benefit from a reduction in penalty since “not all of the relatives of the victim dropped charges against him”.

Assistant to the General Attorney and Criminal Court Prosecutor Jawaher Jbour had asked the court to inflict the maximum punishment against the defendant, saying “there is no justification to what the defendant did and he has no right to control the live of his niece in terms of what she wore, how she behaved and to end her life”.

The tribunal comprised judges Mohammad Baloush, Omar Kloub and Tareq Shakhanbeh.

AMMAN — Jerash Governor Maamoun Lozi on Sunday presented 60 underprivileged families in the governorate with financial aid worth JD700 per family to support their living conditions, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The Ministry of Social Development compiles an annual list of the families who will benefit from the assistance according to its database and the studies it has carried out regularly in targeted areas across the Kingdom. 

AMMAN — The National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) on Saturday organised a workshop on election observations and polls standards of conduct and integrity, according to an NCHR statement.

The one-day workshop targeted students of the University of Jordan (UJ) who are taking part in "Raqeb" ("Observe") initiative, which will be in charge of observing and mentoring the upcoming students' union elections on April 19.

Lawyer Taha Maghareez, who trained the students, said that they were informed on the electoral requirements and the role and duties of the observer, pointing out that the centre will issue a detailed report on the elections upon its partnership with the initiative, all in line with UJ's dean council's approval.